Bomb disposal man: 'I knew I was going to die'

By
Channel 4 News

Updated on 14 August 2010

Former bomb disposal expert Kevin Ivison was certain he would die defusing a bomb in Iraq in 2006. Carl Dinnen, who interviewed him for Channel 4 News, describes the sort of pressure he was working under.

If you list them like the children's shopping game, you can start to understand why the cracks appeared, writes Channel 4 News reporter and presenter Carl Dinnen.

You can start to appreciate the combination of pressures which came to bear on the al-Amarah ATO one February morning.

- Nights of rocket attacks. - Nights of rocket attacks and a bomb kills two soldiers.- Nights of rocket attacks and a bomb kills two soldiers and one of them's your friend. - Nights of rocket attacks and a bomb kills two soldiers and one of them's your friend and there's another bomb.

The list goes on. This was only the beginning of Kevin Ivison's day. It was 28 February 2006. Kevin, who gives his first TV interview to Channel 4 News tonight, was the ammunition technical officer. He was the bomb disposal man for al-Amarah.

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Halfway between Baghdad and Basra it was the British Army's toughest posting in Iraq.

- ..and there's another bomb and a crowd throwing rocks. - ..and there's another bomb and a crowd throwing rocks and a sniper.

The cracks that appeared were in Kevin's personality. His reserves of courage had been overdrawn. After that day in al-Amarah he developed severe post-traumatic stress disorder, this despite having a stable background, intelligence, bravery and the psychological toughness to become an ATO in the first place.

- ..and a sniper and your robot's not working. - ..and a sniper and your robot's not working and neither is the signal blocking device.- ..and a sniper and your robot's not working and neither is the signal blocking device and you've got to defuse the bomb.

Now try and remember them all at once.

Kevin told his second in command to tell his parents and his ex he loved them.

"You thought you were going to die?" I ask. "I knew I was going to die."

But Kevin still walked up to the bomb, at every step expecting it to go off in his face. He defused it (and was awarded the George Medal for his actions) but it effectively ended his career as an ATO - a few days later he was shipped out of al-Amarah.

Tonight he tells us about the incident. He also has concerns about the equipment the ATOs are using in Afghanistan.

Most significantly Kevin has concerns about the way new bomb disposal operators are being trained. Faced with an exponential escalation in the IED war in Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence introduced a new course. Instead of 17 months it takes 16 weeks.

The idea is that all the tasks not relating to the war are stripped out (the ATO job is a broad one involving things like ammunition storage and accident investigation). Kevin Ivison says they have also stripped out "fundamental underpinning knowledge".

Kevin still has PTSD, although since leaving the army he has found effective treatment. He's written a remarkably honest book, Red One, about his time as an ATO, how he loved it and how the cracks started to appear on al- Amarah's route Red One.